We hear it often said that prayer changes things.  Prayer is exactly what we need at this time, perhaps more than at any other period of Gospel Life Community's history.

What is God's specific purpose for us at this time? Our intercession has to be to ask God that each one of us is led to submit himself or herself fully to the Lord and to work in unity to accomplish His will.

Let's fill ourselves with joy even as our assurance of God's direction is bolstered by the continuing miraculous manifestions of His leading in our church's business, while gaining a sense of purpose in shaping the future ministries of Gospel Life. The word TEAM must become a common term for us to use as we follow what the Holy Spirit tells us to do.  "Together Everyone Achieves More," is what the word TEAM should mean for us. Teamwork is important.

Talking with and listening to the Lord will inspire us to spend more time in intimate fellowship with Him. This opens more channels of blessings through which our impact to the community around us will be felt.

The Church Staff

Pastor John

The evangelistic series that began yesterday started to address the challenge that the question above asks. Are people being preached the wrong gospel, which in turn brings numerous misconceptions about it?

Pastor John Tulio's series of sermons expands on the subject of the "Gospel: What It Is Not About." The Good News Hour message yesterday was entitled "The Gospel Is Not About Religion."

It is frustrating to talk with people who don't believe in God, he says, or to those who can't accept Christian teachings, or to those who don't want to go to church or don't want to study the bible, because too many have misunderstood the gospel or misunderstood God by the way these are being presented to them.

However, the biblical gospel corrects human misconceptions about 1) God's character, 2) Christ's mission on earth, 3) the nature of sin, 4) God's acceptance of sinful man, 5) the believers' belonging to God's family, 6) God's purpose and destiny for believers, and 7) the believer's mission on earth, among others.  Pastor John further explained what a "checklist" religion is, and why it doesn't work.

Pastor John pointed out that religion is what one tries to do to gain God's favor, but that Christianity is a relationship and that Jesus came to earth to replace religion with relationship because our religious experience will never be good enough (they are as "filthy rags") and Jesus already satisfied God's requirements forever ("...you did not save yourselves...it was a gift from God...it was not the result of your own efforts...").

He also pointed out that God won't be satisfied with anything less than a "sold out" relationship with Him. The story of the rich, young ruler was revisited, a story about God's "wealth transfer plan," where giving away our worldly goods is not losing but investing. When one offers God his or her performance, it is an insult to Him.

Instead He calls us to intimacy with Him as summarized in Matthew 22:37-40 to "love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind....and your neighbor as yourself."

David was a man skilled in war. From his days as a shepherd boy to the days of serving in Saul's army to leading his own army, David learned to be a skillful warrior. How does one become a skillful warrior?

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The only way one can become a skillful warrior is to be trained and placed in the middle of the battle. It is only when we are placed in the furnace of battle that we truly learn to fight the real battles. Practice doesn't make you battle ready. War games won't prepare you for facing your real enemy in the battlefield. The stark reality of being in the midst of the battle makes us effective warriors.

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Simply reading your Bible will not make you a warrior for the Kingdom. Knowledge without experience is mere folly. Only when you are placed in situations where there is nothing or no one who can save you but God will you learn the lessons of warrior faith. This is the training ground of God, which will make you into a soldier for Christ in the workplace. Consider it to be suicidal faith - faith that says I want to be dead to anything that keeps me from fulfilling God's purposes for my life. It is when your efforts can do nothing to change your circumstance and you are at the mercy of God. These are the real training grounds of God. Do not shrink back from the battle that God may be leading you to today. It may be a training ground that is necessary for the calling He has on your life.